Finance manager siphoned dealership’s cash

Craig Edwards was hired at Kendrick Automotive Nissan in Lafayette to keep the company’s books in order, but he decided to juggle them instead.

The former finance manager told customers the company’s computers were down, then forged receipts for the cash payments he accepted, keeping the money for himself.

Edwards, 36, of West Lafayette was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail and a year of probation, court documents state. He pleaded guilty in May to one Class C felony count of forgery.

Edwards stole more than $16,000 in payments made by five customers whom detectives tracked down and interviewed. He stole $5,000 more from customers who couldn’t be located or couldn’t produce receipts, according to a sentencing summary provided by Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington.

Edwards began drawing suspicion from his supervisors in March 2013 when a customer questioned why she hadn’t received a title for the vehicle she’d purchased. As it turns out, the down payment she’d given to Edwards hadn’t been recorded, court documents state.

The following month, a second customer made a similar complaint.

Employees contacted several other customers who said Edwards had taken cash from them and issued unofficial receipts because the computers weren’t working.

Edwards was fired April 22, 2013, after admitting to his boss that he’d been stealing from the business.

“I did it! I took the money. I am sorry for everything!” he wrote in a text message to the general sales manager, court documents state.

Tippecanoe Superior Court 1 Judge Randy Williams identified three mitigating factors in Edwards’ case, including the fact that a substantial period of time passed since his last conviction, but he also noted that previous attempts at rehabilitation have failed.

Edwards was convicted of forgery and two counts of theft in 1999, check deception in 2000 and 2001, and drunken driving in 2002.

The sentence handed down by Williams includes a mandatory mental health evaluation and bars Edwards from ever being employed as a finance manager.